Inside Cryonics
Updates About People And Organizations In The Cryonics Industry -- February 1, 2009
Suspended Animation
Suspended Animation is growing, not just in numbers but in expertise. The company added 17 new clients over the year 2008, and worked with a USDA-certified facility creating a new training protocol covering all procedures from pronouncement through washout and perfusion. SA staff member Kelly Kingston completed EMT training and became a board certified EMT. SA staff member Ken Schroeder has completed EMT training, and is proceeding to his board exams as well, and SA Staff member Piotr Ruc began EMT training in the first month of the new year.
SA’s staff and standby team now include five EMTs, four paramedics, two physicians, a nurse, six research surgeons, and nine perfusionists. 18 of its 36 people have experience in cryonics cases.
Suspended Animation also signed an agreement to provide mobile, on-call perfusionists for SA clients with PDC Perfusion Services, whose perfusionists have already received their cryonics perfusion training.
Alcor
New Alcor Board Members
At the December 6, 2008, board meeting Alcor welcomed the following individuals its Board of Directors, its Patient Care Trust Board and its Advisory Board:
- James Clement, Alcor Board of Directors.
- Michael Korns, Patient Care Trust Board.
- Bruce Waugh, Alcor Advisory Board.
Also, through a unanimous vote by the Alcor board, Aschwin de Wolf was added as a voting member of the Research and Development Committee.
In media news, Alcor hosted a film crew developing material for the new History Channel show, "Science Impossible". The piece, hosted to air later this Spring, includes interviews with luminaries including Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Aubrey de Grey.
News About People And Organizations In The Cryonics Industry -- November 2008
Alcor
Jennifer Chapman Becomes Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Jennifer Chapman has been named to the post of Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Alcor, as per a bylaws provision requiring the CFO to be Treasurer. Ms. Chapman will direct the organization's financial affairs and maintain its fiscal records, prepare budgets, and oversee reviews conducted by an independent accounting firm.
Jennifer has been a full-time Alcor employee since September 2000, and served on the Financial Advisory Committee formed since July 2008. She holds an associate’s degree in engineering and a bachelor’s degree in business management, and was previously Alcor’s Chief Operating Officer.
Merkle At Nova
Alcor Director and legendary nanotechnology pioneer Ralph Merkle, Ph.D., was welcomed by the Division of Math, Science, and Technology in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences at Nova Southeastern University, as part of the college's Distinguished Speakers Series. Merkle discussed 'Life, Death, and Cryonics' on Thursday, October 2, 2008, in the Miniaci Performing Arts Center.
A web page devoted to the talk is online at http://www.undergrad.nova.edu/articles/dss/ralphmerkle/.
Personnel Changes And Position Openings
In other personnel changes, Stephen Van Sickle has left the post of of Chief Technical Officer at Alcor; and, by unanimous vote of the Alcor Board, Regina Pancake has joined the Research and Development Committee.
Alcor is continuing to assess candidates to fill the posts of CEO, and of Transport Coordinator. Those interested should click here for more information about the CEO position, and here to learn more about the Transport Coordinator post.
Alcor Now Accepting Donations Online
Online Donations by credit card or by PayPal can be made directly to Alcor's PayPal account by visiting the Donations Page online. Contributors may make an online donation to Alcor without opening an Alcor account, and donations may be directed toward a specific end, by stating the preferred use of area of the donation in the PayPal comment field.
The Alcor News Blog
What's happening at Alcor doesn't require waiting for a monthly newsletter any longer. The Alcor News blog now announces breaking news from the Alcor Foundation as soon as it's available.
For Further Information:
Further information about Alcor may be found by visiting the organization's web site at www.alcor.org. To receive Alcor News by email send a blank email message to alcornews-request@alcornews.org with the single word subscribe in the subject line. Alcor United at www.alcorunited.org provides online forums for existing and potential Alcor members and interested members of the public to discuss issues relating to cryonics and to Alcor.
Cryonics Institute
Annual Meeting At CI Facility.
The annual general meeting of the Cryonics Institute was held September 2008 at the CI Facility.
The meeting was notable for the election of a new Director, Andy Zawacki, who has served as plant manager at CI since its early beginnings. Zawacki replaced Joseph Kowalski on the Cryonics Institute board as Director. Kowalski was then appointed to the Director position vacated by John de Rivaz, who is leaving both the post of Director and Vice President. Alan Mole was elected by the CI Directors to serve in the CI Vice-President position vacated by de Rivaz.
The event was also marked by informative talks by Aschwin de Wolf, who will be doing research supported by CI, and Cryonics Society President Nick Pavlica, who spoke about his efforts to develop rapid-alert and warning technologies to bring quick medical care to cryonics members who unexpectedly decease.
CI's previous research lab was closed last December after chief CI researcher Dr. Yuri Pichugin returned to Russia. During the current meeting, the Immortalist Society, under the leadership of York Porter, agreed to lease its share of the remaining CI lab equipment to a new cryonics research facility being opened in Oregon by Aschwin de Wolf and his wife, brain researcher Chana de Wolf. CI hopes the research will lead to improved perfusion methods for CI patients.
Robert Ettinger, former President and Vice President of both the Cryonics Institute and the Immortalist Society, and widely celebrated as the founder of the cryonics movement, was in attendance, and gave a notable talk during which he nominated two new advisors to the CI Scientific Advisory Board. The new advisors are Robert Duncan Enzmann, possessor of an M.D. and two Ph.D.s, and East German physician Dr. Gunter Boden.
CI President Ben Best announced during the meeting that the number of CI members has now reached 767 members, 327 who are fully funded, and 420 whose funding is not yet in place.
For Further Information:
Further information about the Cryonics Institute may be found by visiting the organization's web site at www.cryonics.org. The Cryonics Institute provides an online forum for members only to discuss issues relating to cryonics and to the Cryonics Institute. There is also a recently formed Cryonics Institute Facebook Group open to the general public.
Cryonics Society of Canada
Christine Gaspar Returns As CSC President
Christine Gaspar, one of the most popular and well regarded leaders of the cryonics movement in Canada, returned from nursing work in California earlier this year to once again assume the post of President of the CSC. Gaspar, also known for her work during the SARS epidemic, has been one of the principal figures in the rise of the Toronto group to one of the largest and most active cryonics social groups in the world. Welcome back, Christine!
Cryonics Organizations In The News
"A Symbol Of Hope"
Cheryl Knight of the Institution of Engineering and Technology recently visited the Alcor Foundation and the Cryonics Institute and wrote an engaging up-to-the-minute report on cryonics today. You can read the article, A Science Without A Deadline, online by clicking the title link.
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